Breach
by ImagineClan United
Summary: StarClan, the haven where noble warriors go after death. The Dark Forest, reserved for angry and bitter souls. What happens when they collide? (On Hiatus)
1. A Boundary Shattered

**This story is a collaborative effort from ImagineClan. We're making the roleplay there into a story! There's no one person to thank for this, it's from all of us working together like the close-knit team ImagineClan is. So we all hope you enjoy reading this!**

**Please note that updates will not be in any kind of schedule. We'll update when we have the material to make a new chapter, and not before.**

* * *

**Chapter One**

The dark, brittle trees rustled in the cold breeze. A silver tabby tom sat alone in a clearing, his bright blue eyes darting back and forth.

"Are you sure that there's nobody around?" he growled. Had any other cat been watching, they would have seen a mad warrior muttering to himself. But to the tom, a small, dark gray she-cat sat beside him, her amber gaze cheerfully sparkling.

_Nope!_ the imaginary she-cat chirped.

"Good," the silver tom hissed. He raced through the endless forest, his fur stinging at the leaves and thorns sticking to it. Finally, he came to a stop at the barrier between their world, and his. Taking a deep breath, the tom took the plunge.

The barrier pushed Silvertail, the tom, back, sending jolts of unbearable pain through his body.

_Maybe we should stop,_ Lionkit, the imaginary she-cat, suggested. _This looks like it hurts. If you keep this up, you could fade away! And then I wouldn't have anyone to play with._

"Go . . . go to the other side," Silvertail hissed through clenched teeth. Lionkit shrugged.

_Okay,_ she squeaked, effortlessly bouncing into StarClan. Since she wasn't real, the barrier didn't affect her.

"There," Silvertail sighed. "Now . . . now I can get over there!" Seeing his "friend" safe and sound on the other side sent adrenaline pumping through his veins. And finally, the tom broke through, falling into the grass of StarClan with a soft thud.

Silvertail slowly stood back up. When he looked around, he was in the beautiful meadows of StarClan, a sharp contrast from the barren trees of The Dark Forest. Lionkit sat beside him. The tom looked at his paw. It was covered in something shiny.

"What . . . what is this stuff?" he muttered, shaking his paw to get rid of the sparkly substance.

_I don't know, _Lionkit mewed. A tortoiseshell she-cat was purring in amusement a few fox-lengths away. Silvertail whipped around to face her.

"Hey!" he hissed, bristling. "What's so funny?!"

"Those are stars," the she-cat laughed. "I'm sure that they told you those stories in the other Clans too. You know 'the warriors with stars in their fur?' I mean, we're called StarClan for . . . err . . . StarClan's sake!"

"Oh," Silvertail chuckled nervously. "Stars. Of course." Lionkit rolled her amber eyes.

"I'm Hawkbreeze, by the way," the tortoiseshell purred.

"Silvertail," the former Dark Forest warrior mumbled.

"So, Silvertail," Hawkbreeze mewed. "How'd you end up here?"

"Come again?"

"To put it blatantly . . . how did you die?" Silvertail stiffened.

_You should've thought of this before you plunged through that barrier,_ Lionkit sighed._ Toms._

"I . . . well . . . I died in battle, saving my mate!" the tom meowed, trying to cover his stammer with the claim of a noble death.

Hawkbreeze stared at the tom for a moment.

"Wow," she finally breathed.

"I really should ask the same of you," Silvertail growled. "How'd you die?"

"Greencough," the she-cat answered simply. "C'mon, I'll show you around!" Hawkbreeze added cheerfully, bounding towards the lush, more foresty parts of StarClan. Silvertail tailed behind the rather hyperactive cat. Call yourself a StarClan warrior? He snorted.

* * *

**Earlier that morning...**

* * *

Palestar opened her bright green eyes and yawned stiffly. She got up and exited her den to see no one in camp except the night-watch guard. She dipped her head towards him, and he slipped inside the warriors den to get some well-deserved rest. The pale silver she-cat padded over to the fresh-kill pile and picked up a mouse, leaving only a few birds and a scrawny squirrel left. She took the prey and sat under the shade of a large tree near camp, close enough that she could watch over her Clan. Palestar took a bite of the plump, juicy rodent, while mentally planning hunting patrols for Brackenheart to organize.

After she finished the mouse she buried the bones and descended back into the clearing. Some warriors were up now. She instructed them to go on a hunting patrol and they agreed, dashing out of camp. Palestar yawned again, trying to wake up.

The leader suddenly snapped up from her comfortable state. She felt like something terrible had just happened, and that the whole Clan was endangered by a malicious, sly predator. But she looked around at her peaceful Clan and saw nothing —just happy queens with their mates, kits playing with apprentices, and warriors sharing tongues. Nothing was wrong. _Must just be my imagination,_ she thought to herself, deciding not to tell her medicine cat Kindlefrost about it unless he mentioned it first.

"Morning, Palestar," greeted a white and brown she-cat as she stepped out from the warriors den, heading over towards the fresh-kill pile.

"Good morning, Icepetal," Palestar purred, dipping her head to the frosty warrior. Near the nursery she saw a queen, Briarflame, grooming her two kits; dappled Brightkit and brown Gorsekit.

Meanwhile, in the apprentice's den, Lightningpaw woke up to busy rustling around camp. The ruffled red she-cat got up and stretched, opening her jaws in a luxurious yawn to display red gums and sharp teeth. She padded out of the apprentice's den and looked around to gather her bearings.

Some kits were playing with her denmates, though it was hard to tell the difference. The once-tiny bundles of fur were growing up. The apprentice's den will certainly be noisy in the next few days, Lightningpaw thought wryly. She padded over to the group. _Palestar probably has some duties to attend to. I might as well warm up before we train._ Soon she was enveloped in a game of moss-ball with the kits.

In the medicine den, Kindlefrost twitched in his sleep.

_Kindlefrost's eyes opened slowly, sleep blurring his vision. He blinked and rubbed a paw over his ear, the grogginess in his limbs slowly fading. He took a step from his nest. A chill ran down his spine and his fur spiked up. _I'm not in my den... Why? _He thought. His surroundings were dark. There were no stars, or if there were they were covered by the thick swath of fog that surrounded him. A figure moved in front of him. _A cat? What would a cat be doing in a fog like this?

The image faded, and he was back in his nest. An odd sense of insecurity hung in the back of his mind, as if an important boundary had been shattered. What did that mean? He got out of his nest, shaking scraps of moss out of his fur. Palestar should know about this. He poked his head out of his den and spotted Palestar sitting and watching the kits play. He approached her. "Palestar, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Palestar turned her attention away from the game the kits were playing and got up, looking up at her medicine cat. "What is it, Kindleflame?" She could tell something was wrong almost as soon as he opened his mouth.

"I-I'm not sure exactly. I think something happened in StarClan." His fur was still spiked up in a few places but his gaze was calm. A barrier has been crossed. Some voice spoke to him, as if willing him to speak the words aloud, "A barrier has been crossed." he repeated.

Palestar glanced down at her paws and decided to tell him about the feeling she got this morning."I think that maybe I felt that too." She sounded unsure. "Not too long after I woke up this morning, I felt like something had just gone terribly wrong. But I didn't say anything to anyone —I assumed it was paranoia. Maybe they're related somehow?"

Unknown to the two, Lightningpaw listened to the conversation from below.

"Possibly. But what do you make of it?" He decided to hold off on telling her about the vision for now. "And what do you think it has to do with us?"

"I don't know. I can't tell. It probably means something's about to happen..." she swallowed. "I'll send some patrols to see if anything crossed our border. It might just mean a badger wandered into the territory and crossed the border, as you put it. But I doubt you'd get a message from StarClan about a stray badger."

The medicine cat dipped his head to her. "Alright, I'll let you know if StarClan sends anything else," he meowed, padding back to the medicine den.

Palestar watched him go, pondering what it was, before turning to her apprentice and padding over. "Hey, Lightningpaw! Are you ready to go hunting?"

"Yes!" Lightningpaw mewed, bouncing up and down in uncharacteristic excitement. Hunting was one of her strong suits. "Where are we going?"

Palestar purred at her apprentice's excitement, remembering when she had first became an apprentice.. "Where do you want to go?" She said, deciding to let the apprentice choose. "The clearing next to the big tree has a lot of prey this time of year, but it's new-leaf so anywhere is good."

"Can we go to the meadow?" Lightningpaw asked. "I want to stretch my legs and there's a lot of rabbits."

Palestar nodded. "Of course," she said cheerfully, green eyes shining. "Race you there!" She took off at full speed towards the meadow.

Lightningpaw bounded after her mentor, taking large strides.

Palestar arrived, panting, at the meadow.

"Okay. You're great at hunting, so I don't think think you'll need my help. Tell me if you scent a rogue, or something strange, okay? Like a badger."

Palestar scented the air, trying to find something to catch.

Lightningpaw skidded to a halt, barely avoiding bumping into a tree. She brushed the hard bark with her nose. The rusty she-cat nodded and closed her eyes, opening her mouth slightly to scent the air.

Palestar stifled her purr of amusement at her apprentice's antics and scented a mouse. She dropped into a hunting crouch and saw it nibbling on a seed, oblivious to her only because the soft breeze was in her favour. Just as the huntress was about to pounce, the wind changed. The mouse stood straight up and, in a panic, headed for the undergrowth that surrounded the meadow. But Palestar wouldn't let it get away. She went on full-speed after the mouse and trapped it's tail between her paws. Purring, she gave it a swift bite to the neck and buried it.

Lightningpaw swung her head to one side. There! She saw a plump brown rabbit and crouched down until she was a fox length away. Then, resisting the urge to yowl, the huntress pounced. Misjudging the leap, her unsheathed claws grasped onto the bobbing white tail of the rabbit, which ran into a tunnel.

The rusty she-cat couldn't let her prey get away in front of Palestar. She nosed into the tunnel, and the scent of milk and baby mammal hit her throat.

_A rabbit nest? _Lightningpaw dipped her head into the hole and sank her teeth into two small spines. She held up the now-dead rabbit kits proudly. Suddenly, there was a rustling. A golden she-cat, streaks of blood dotting her pelt, burst through some nearby bushes with two kits trailing behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

The trees in StarClan were leafy and full of life, and prey darted everywhere Silvertail looked. Suddenly, Hawkbreeze skidded to a halt.

"What is it?" the silver cat asked, nearly bumping into her flank.

_Maybe she's going to show you where StarClan sends the prophecies! _Lionkit squealed excitedly.

"I doubt it," Silvertail muttered. "She seems pretty new here-she's not faded at all. They wouldn't trust such an inexperienced she-cat with that... So," he meowed louder, enough for Hawkbreeze to hear. His pelt bristled with excitement. This could be what he was waiting for. This could be the chance for his revenge. "Where are we going?" the tabby inquired.

"My secret place," Hawkbreeze responded cheerily, bounding towards a pile of leaves. Silvertail eyed the heap warily.

"Your secret place?" he repeated questioningly.

_That_ is _what she said, _Lionkit sighed. _Your plan will have to wait another day, I suppose._

"Yeah, my secret place!" Hawkbreeze purred. "I've never shown it to anyone else."

_Why me, then?_ Silvertail wondered. He pushed the thought away. _Is it something important?_

Hawkbreeze jumped through a tangle of leaves into a large chamber, filled with winding tunnels. Silvertail tentatively followed.

_Wait, what?_ His ears twitched. The tabby could somehow sense that a young cat had entered StarClan, not dead but unconscious._This could be my chance! _he thought.

"Sorry, but I have to go and ...err... find an old friend of mine," he lied, running through the tunnels and eventually getting out. Silvertail brusquely shoved the image of Hawkbreeze's stricken, hurt face away. That was for fools, for weak cats. He was strong. And now...

He had an apprentice to recruit.

* * *

Palestar registered the cat immediately and leapt on her, pinning her down but not damaging her. "What are you doing here?" she snarled.

Lightningpaw eyed the she-cat warily, eying the fluid that stained her pelt a fearsome crimson."She's dying, Palestar. Don't hurt her."

The golden she cat nodding, hacking up blood. "My kits... Oh my precious kits..."

"O-oh... sorry." Palestar backed away from the she-cat. In her fear and readiness to defend her Clan, she hadn't noticed any details about who she attacked.

"Your kits?" She turrned to the small kittens. "Did they get hurt too? Do you want us to protect them?" Palestar tried to ask important questions —this she-cat's time was almost here.

"Yes... Splash... Mottle... " The cat's eyes closed and she exhaled her final breath.

"Mama!" screeched one of the kits, a multi-colored tom. The other, a she-kit, weakly sniffled.

Palestar glanced at the now-dead mother and sighed. "Well, we should take these kits in. Splashkit and Mottlekit, perhaps. It's what their mother wants, and I'm no one to deny the wishes of a dead cat."

Lightningpaw nosed the brown she-kit. "We should get this one to Kindleflame." It seemed feebler than a mouse.

Palestar nodded in agreement. "Can you carry the tom?" She scooped up the female in her mouth and started padding back to camp. After a long trek, they reached their destination; ImagineClan camp.

Redclaw, a blue-gray warrior who was once a kittypet, sat near the warriors den.

"Hey!" she called. "You're back!"

Lightningpaw nodded to Redclaw through a mouthful of fur. The squirming light brown bundle refused to stop fidgeting and making the work twice as hard.

"Stop! Lemmego! I have to go and heal mama so we can go home!" the kit squeaked.

_Oh, the poor thing. _Lightningpaw set the kit down."Splash," Lightningpaw meowed slowly, hoping that it was his name; the she-kit was most likely the one named named Mottle because of her pelt. "Your mother has gone to..."

_To where? Rogues and loners don't have a StarClan._

"To the stars."

"Yeah," Redclaw added. "To the stars. She's happy there. There's a lot of food, so she never gets hungry. And she'll always, always watch over you. She'll be so proud of her brave, strong kits."

Lightningpaw shot Redclaw a grateful look.

"We'll take you to the nursery now," Redclaw told the kits. "Your mother wouldn't want you to get hurt, and we'll take care of you in this Clan."

Palestar glanced at Redclaw. "I don't think Briarflame would mind taking them in. Please take them to her."

Redclaw nodded and ushered the kits to where Briarflame was watching anxiously from the nursery entrance.

"Lightningpaw..." Palestar dropped her voice so that only the rusty red apprentice would hear. "Do you want to come with me to bury their mother?"

Lightningpaw nodded. "We can't just..." she trailed off. "And anyways, I want to find out who did this to them. There might be foxes or badgers or something in the territory."

Palestar shook her head slightly, voice still low. "They're not in the territory... or at least they weren't when she was attacked. She had obviously been running for a while, exhaustion playing a part of her death, and we weren't far from the border ourselves. But soon enough, we will be attacked by whatever creatures did this." Palestar sighed. "Let's go." She started walking back out, towards the meadow where they had left the body.

Lightningpaw followed her mentor, recalling the rabbit kits she had caught not that long ago. She'd have to bring them back to camp after they buried the mother.

_When they arrived..._

"Palestar!" Lightning mewed, horror evident in her kicked a half-eaten carcass that was once her fresh-kill. "Someone was here."

Palestar glanced at the she-cat, hoping for a second that she had just fainted, not died, and had eaten the fresh-kill.

Nope. She was lifeless and still.

Palestar whirled around, looking for anything that might betray where the intruders were. She saw nothing. She tried smelling, but all she could get was the scent of the now dead she-rogue.

"Lightningpaw, look around. See if you can smell anything, too. If I get attacked, you run back to camp for help. And stay where I can see you." She said all of this in a soft voice, aware that there might be eavesdroppers.

Lightningpaw twisted her head around, but she failed to remember to scent. And so the apprentice did not notice the dark figures creeping up behind her.

Palestar, who was standing in front of Lightningpaw, did see them. Her voice was a whisper as she spoke: "Run to camp. Right now. And no matter what, _do not look behind you_."

Lightningpaw barely paused to nod. She raced back to the camp, struggling past brambles and bursting through bushes. _Do not look behind you. Do not look behind you. _

Palestar couldn't hold off the rogues herself, and they definitely knew she was there. She used the time when they were distracted by Lightningpaw escaping to frantically claw herself up a tree that had very thick leaves. She tried to conceal herself up there, hoping the rogues couldn't see her and wondering how in the name of StarClan she'd get down without hurting herself.

Lightningpaw reached camp, panting. "Rogues in the meadow! Palestar was there!" Splash bounced up.

"Let me at 'em! I have to avenge mama!"

Lightningpaw restricted the tomkit and waited. The deputy, Brackenheart, was nowhere in sight. She felt her legs tremble; could she really round up a patrol all on her own? "Er... Redclaw, can you find some cats to help?"

Redclaw nodded and Lightningpaw dashed back to Palestar. _Even with nine lives, two's better than one._

Palestar waited quite a bit for Lightningpaw to come back with more warriors. The leader twitched her tail impatiently. _Where is she? _Palestar began to think she might have to fight the rogues by herself.

The wind changed direction and blew her scent towards the rogues. They sniffed the air and started looking around the area of her tree, but none of them had thought to look up yet. Despite the direness of the situation, the silver she-cat found herself stifling a purr of amusement. _Dimwitted cats._

One of them, a well-muscled tom, finally thought of glancing up and spotted her trying to hide. He yowled to the other rogues, and, after some discussion Palestar couldn't hear, a nimble she-cat started climbing up the tree, gaining towards her faster and faster. Palestar jumped over to a branch closer to where the she-cat was scaling, and the branch cracked. Palestar just managed to hold on to a near branch while the branch she had just been on fell down and hit the she-cat square in the face. She scurried back up as dignifiedly as she could and watched the she-cat fall to the ground. _One down, though that could have gone smoother._

The leader heard Lightningpaw give a battle cry as she burst through the bushes. She ignored Palestar —or at lest, where she thought Palestar was,— probably not wanting to see her mentor's disappointed expression when she saw that she hadn't brought a patrol. The rogues turned to her.

Palestar briefly wondered why Lightningpaw didn't bring reinforcements. _Is the Clan okay? Ah, well. We'll just have to fight even more viciously. _While they were looking away, she decided to jump down. A rogue broke her fall. He yowled in alarm, and she quickly twisted her head and placed a killing bite into his neck.

_One more down,_ she thought, leaping away from him. _That makes two._

Lightningpaw was cornered by two rogues, causing her to hiss defensively. The rusty red she-cat unsheathed her claws and deftly swiped one on the nose. He retreated a little, leaving a gap to escape through. The apprentice dashed forward.

Palestar ran to Lightningpaw's side. "Why no more warriors?" she whispered.

"Brackenheart wasn't in camp. I told Redclaw to round up a few —AH!" A rogue sliced at Lightningpaw's muzzle. She ducked underneath him and nipped his stomach. When the rogue jumped, she rolled onto her back and held up her unsheathed paws, slicing his sides when he landed.

Palestar was pounced on and pinned by a rogue before she could go to help her apprentice. She hoped that Lightningpaw could handle it on her own and clawed at the tom's exposed belly. He yowled in pain and backed away from her. She got up and tried to slash his neck but missed and just hit thick chest fur. He retaliated by clawing her nose and it left a nick. She growled and slashed her claws across his eyes. He was rendered sightless and slashed around for a bit, wondering where she had gone. She slashed his back, leaving a gash, and he managed to hit her leg. The leader screeched and went for a killing bite on his neck. But he scratched her face and Palestar drew back, hissing.

The leader was so focused on fighting that rogue that she failed to see another one creeping behind her.

This one was much bigger and stronger than the other rogue, who had been about her age and size. He barreled into her and had her pinned in a matter of seconds. She tried to claw his belly but all she could get was dense fur. He plunged his teeth into her neck, and she fell unconscious.

Palestar opened her eyes and glanced around her. She was in a beautiful place- a large meadow with the greenest grass and the bluest sky. She heard birds singing in the trees that bordered the clearing, and she was so busy looking around she didn't even notice the cat in front of her.

"Ah!"

"Good afternoon to you, too," the she-cat purred in reply.

"Where am I?"

"StarClan."

All of her memories of the battle came flooding back. "Oh no! Send me back. I have to help Lightningpaw."

"She has it covered. If it reassures you, Redclaw's there and Leafsplash is coming now."

"...Did I lose a life? And who's that?" She had just noticed a very pale, ghost-like she-cat that looked just like her; silver fur and green eyes.

"That's you. And yes, you did lose a life. Everytime you lose a life a little more of you come here."

Palestar watched the she-cat. She seemed unaware of Palestar and the StarClan warrior and was chasing a butterfly.

"She cannot speak, of course."

Palestar turned her attention back to the she-cat. Suddenly she felt herself slipping away.

"Well, looks like our time here is done. And I was just starting to like you..." The warrior dipped her head mischievously and Palestar was gone.

Redclaw had entered the battlefield, staring at the yowling cats. It was evident to her that ImagineClan and the rogues were at a stalemate. From what she could see, Palestar was unconscious, and Lightningpaw was covered in wounds. Howver, a few rogues had fallen as well. Without hesitation, Redclaw leapt into battle, unsheathing the Twoleg-created red claws for which she was named.

"Get away from our leader, you foxheart!" the blue she-cat snarled, barreling into the rogue that had attacked Palestar and clawing him without mercy.

Lightningpaw's head was spinning. She knew of nothing but the battle between her and the full-grown rogue; she didn't know that more warriors had come to fight, or that her mentor and leader had lost a life. There were painful scratches on her side, and the rogue slashed deeper and deeper into one of the gashes. Letting out a yowl of fury, she bowled him over into the trees. Sticky blood —his or hers?— stained Lightningpaw's pelt.

"This is for killing a mother! Have you no honor?" she yowled, thinking of the innocent faces back at camp.

Using her last bit of strength, the red she-cat stalked over to the weakened rogue and brought down a paw on her opponent's head, knocking him out forever and crushing his skull.

_I... killed a cat..._

The world began to blacken, the pain in her flank becoming agonizingly unbearable. And she began to fall into an endless, cold blackness. She registered Redclaw running over and the rogues retreating with a promise to be back with more cats before the darkness consumed her.


End file.
